Bored of my meals

otb666

I also just cook for myself.  I have a big selection of grains and lentils cous cous pasta rice buckwheat and tinned beans use these with veg from farm shop and tinned and frozen fish. meals can be made very quickly especially if you soak grains overnight.  I have frozen fruit which i make smoothies with milk just like a macdonalds milk shake.

Emmia

CliveOfIndia said:

What about soup, just for a bit of variety?  It's really easy to make, and is a great way of using up veg that are a bit past their best.

My first ever attempt was as the result of having - for some inexplicable reason - a massive load of carrots in the fridge that were questionable at best.  I couldn't bear to just throw them out, then I thought "How hard can it be?".

I pretty much made it up as I went along - soften some onions, throw in the carrots, add water, a couple of vegetable Oxo cubes, ground coriander (I'd heard of carrot and coriander soup), a good glug of orange juice.  Let it simmer until everything is soft, pour the whole lot into a blender and blitz it.

I thought it would be pretty runny as I didn't throw away any of the liquid - actually, I ended up having to add a bit more liquid as it was really thick.

And I have to say, it was amazingly delicious, especially for a first attempt, and just winging it, no recipe.

And no, I'm not vegetarian, quite the opposite!  But vegetable soup can be really tasty, and cheap as chips - especially if you've got veg that's starting to turn anyway, or if you can buy yellow-stickered stuff.

And let your imagination run riot - one of my favourites is broccoli and Stilton.  But really, just use whatever you like.

Make a big batch, freeze individual portions in Tupperwares, keep a stock of bread in the freezer - I love those part-baked mini-baguettes, but whatever you prefer.  It's surprising how filling a good thick home-made soup with nice bread can be.  Stick the Tupperware in the microwave, the bread in the oven, 10 minutes max and you can curl up in front of the TV with a lovely supper - especially nice on an autumn evening.

One of my favourite recipe books is Lindsay Bareham "a celebration of soup" lots of recipes for inspiration and how to make stock 

A Celebration of Soup https://amzn.eu/d/dKhhfwY

EssexHebridean

Buying single chicken breasts is about the most expensive way of buying chicken - but you’re probably aware of that! Allowing that you aren’t comfortable with freezing it yourself, how about buying the bags of frozen chicken breast chunks? You could then just take out as much as you need to make a pasta dish, or a stew, or whatever, get it out the night before and defrost in the fridge, then use as though it was fresh?

Soup is a good call - if you wanted to make it a bit more of a meal then a nice crusty roll or a chunk of good bread alongside fills the gaps. As others have already said making things like stir fry sauces is y’all that tricky, but also, with the shop bought ones remember that although they appear to be high salt and sugar sometimes, you’re not eating a huge amount of the sauce, so in turn you’re not actually getting that much of the salt or sugar. (Also salt and sugar are something that you need to be afraid of eating in small amounts - no matter what the wellness world might try and tell you!) 

omelettes can include pretty much any veg, but also things like diced up cubed potatoes to turn it into a more substantial frittata style dish. Some chunks of chorizo fried off work well in that too.

macaroni cheese is another dish which can be “pimped up” - maybe a cauliflower and macaroni cheese (see also broccoli for this!) or throw in some chopped up bacon, or pieces of cooked sausage, or more of that chorizo…you get the idea?